Teepees, Tomatoes and Garden Helpers

Nothing is better than a homegrown tomato.  After tasting my first Brandywine in upstate New York in 2002, I was determined to have a tomato patch and grow these beauties in my own backyard. But the first thing I needed to learn was how to build a tomato teepee. 

A dear friend, Kathy Prescott, had created artistic tomato patches in her front yard with bamboo teepees.  That is what I wanted.  So I called for her assistance.  
 
Most of us try to kill that dreaded bamboo growing in our yards, but not Kathy.  She puts hers to use in her gardens as tomato and cucumber trellises. She graciously came over and gave me what she referred to as a "teepee tutorial."

To build a tomato teepee, all you need are three or four bamboo stalks standing 6 feet tall, clippers, some garden twine, and a lot of patience. First you clip the branches off the stalks and put them aside for later use as the cross-ties.  Next you bury 8-10 inches of each stalk in the ground or until it feels securely anchored.  These should be approximately 3 feet apart, in the shape of a square (if you use 3 stalks, they should form a triangle).  The stalks will be pointing straight up to the sky.  

Next you start to form the teepee by pulling two stalks together near the top and securing them with twine.  And now the tricky part - you need to weave the twine around the stalks in a figure eight pattern to secure them.   My figure eights always look a little messy.  Continue the same pattern with the other two stalks.

Once you have the structural backbone in place, you can start adding the cross-ties or ribs.  I try to attach the ribs at the points or nodes where I have clipped the branches, making them much easier to secure and hold the ribs in place.  Save the leftover branches.  Many times in past years I have added more ribs as the tomatoes grew taller and heavier.

Now it is time to plant your tomato plant in the center of the teepee.  I am lucky to have three precious little girls next door who love to assist in my garden.  Caroline, 4, is very serious about feeding and watering our plants.  If it were up to her, she would feed them every weekend. 

Eva, 7, was a big help when placing pillowcases on top of the newly planted tomatoes when we had a recent cold snap.  Pillowcases are less cumbersome to handle than large sheets and fit over clay pots with ease. 
  
Several years ago I gave the girls a copy of Tim and Sally's Vegetable Garden, authored by our own local Grady Thrasher.   Now on summer Saturday mornings, you can find the girls in my backyard, with baskets in hand, harvesting our tomatoes and cucumbers, just like their fictional friends, Tim and Sally.

Cherry tomatoes are perfect for little hands to harvest, so I make sure we plant Sweet 100s every year.  This year we are proud to announce that two-year-old Molly has learned her colors so there will be no more picking of green tomatoes.